


Emil Västerström And The Silent Woods Spirit

by GayKitty



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Ghost Hunter!Emil, Ghost Hunting, M/M, Pre-Slash, This was going to just be a quick dumb ficlet but then it took over my brain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:42:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23492653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GayKitty/pseuds/GayKitty
Summary: Emil hunts ghosts for a living - or rather, he films himself going to so-called "haunted" places at night and investigates them for "ghostly activity", despite not really believing the whole ghost thing himself. Tonight, he's filming at Silent Woods Park, where there have been reports of a pale figure appearing around midnight.Lalli just wants some peace and quiet. Is that too much to ask?
Relationships: Lalli Hotakainen/Emil Västerström
Comments: 20
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Swearing! The amount you'd expect from a tired and kind of pissed off young adult. That's pretty much the only reason for the teen rating, but there is a good amount of it.

Emil never claimed to love his job. He didn't _hate_ it - he'd wanted to make YouTube videos for a job since he learned that was something he could do, and he _knows_ he's lucky to have made it - but nights like tonight, he came close. It was nearly 2 AM and he should be in bed like a normal person, but _n_ _o,_ instead he just finished arguing with the park manager or whatever and now he's wandering around off the path tripping over tree roots and making an absolute _disaster_ out of his hair because there's rumors of the _lamest ghost_ _ever_ haunting Silent Woods Park.

Whatever. Emil was a _professional_ ; he had an audience, and they were pretty great by YouTube standards. He could deal with these awful conditions for thirty minutes, for them. He was far enough into the park now that the park manager probably wouldn't come ruin his take again, so he fluffed his hair back into a somewhat acceptable condition, angled his camera so his face was in frame, and tried again. 

"Hey there, everyone! What's up, it's 2 in the morning and I'm here at Silent Woods City Park. Lately, there have been rumors— people have been saying, they've been coming here at night and seeing a small, pale figure in the trees— _Fuck!_ " Emil cut himself off by stumbling over a fucking tree root _again_ , barely managing not to drop the camera. "Uh, speaking of coming here at night, I'd suggest you _don't_ , it's so fucking dark out here." 

"Anyway, people are saying there's a ghost here, so I'm here to check it out. I have to say, this is not the most haunted place I've ever seen." He paused to aim his best smile at the camera and gesture at the trees behind him. "No one's died here recently, either. Or if they have, it's not on record. If there _is_ a ghost, I don't know why it ended up here. Probably there isn't one." Usually he tries to get at least ten minutes into the video before he starts this, but he's _tired_ and _cold_ and his feet hurt because he keeps _tripping_ _over things_ , and he just doesn't have the energy to pretend to believe this crap. He can edit it out in the morning if he has to. "It's probably just, just moonlight catching on some ice or something, or it's _completely made up_ \- this is the most boring 'ghost' _ever_. Ooh, it's a pale indistinct figure! It sounds like _every ghost movie ev— Aaugh_!" 

This time Emil _did_ drop the camera, but it didn't matter much because he slammed down face-first onto the dirt next to it. "The world hates me." For a moment he just lay there and thought about just... going home and quitting all this. He could probably get another job; if all else failed he could beg forgiveness from his dad, promise to go back to school. Whatever he did, it'd probably be better than laying in leaf litter and who knows what else, dampness and cold soaking through his jacket. 

Once he was finished regretting his decisions, Emil sighed and sat up to assess the damage. Thankfully the camera wasn't broken - he'd had to save for a _year_ to afford the stupid thing - but there was water and leaf bits in the lens, and this take was _definitely_ unusable. The whole left side of his jaw felt sore; it was probably bruised, if not worse. Sigrun mentioned one of her friends had gone to nursing school a while ago, maybe he could ask him to take a look at it. He'd torn a hole in the knee of his jeans, too, and he had _twigs_ tangled in his hair. He was _not_ in any shape to record any more tonight, and although he _could_ make himself presentable because he was amazing like that, he wasn't in the mood to record any more tonight either. He could try again tomorrow, the ghost that didn't exist wasn't going to go anywhere.

Emil leaned back against the tree he'd tripped over and ran his hand through his hair - just because he wasn't recording, didn't mean he wanted to walk home looking like a bum. He had to admit, now that he could relax and look it over, the park was actually kind of nice; everything was a bit washed out and silver-tinted from the moonlight and most of the ground was still covered in shadows, making it look a little like a scene from some movie. Emil didn't know what movie, exactly, but he was sure there was a scene just like this in at least one. He could take a moment and just enjoy the scenery - the shiny-leaved bushes clustered around some of the tree trunks, the dappled moonlight on the ground, the white shape in a nearby tree...

_Wait, what?_

Emil reached for his camera absently and wiped the lens clean on his shirt, not daring to look away. The shape appeared to be a slim, bony boy around his age, lounging on a tree branch like it was completely normal to be sitting in trees in city parks at 2 in the morning. His hair came down to his shoulders, and he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, or maybe jeggings - he didn't look faded or particularly ghostly, except for the fact that everything from his clothes to his hair was nearly as pale as the moon above him. His face was lit by something Emil couldn't see, giving him a clear view of sharp cheekbones, thin eyebrows drawn together, pale lips turned down in a faint frown— Suddenly, Emil's mouth felt dry. Fuck, why did no one ever mention ghosts could be hot? 

_Wait, that's a ghost. I'm seeing an actual ghost, what the fuck._ Emil looked away quickly, blinked, looked back - the boy was still there, stubbornly being a real, actual ghost. All the times he'd finished a video by ranting that ghosts didn't exist, he'd have to release a correction or something - fuck, he'd have to _apologize to Reynir_. Emil groaned quietly and picked up his camera again - apparently, the universe decided he had to record tonight - checked one last time that there weren't any plant bits stuck in his hair, then turned the camera so it'd catch both him and the ghost in frame and pressed record. 

"Hey, so, I had a bit of trouble recording tonight. I was going to try again tomorrow, but... well, I found him." Emil glanced back at the ghost just in time to see him shift, turning his face away from the camera. The tree he was - sitting? Manifesting? - on didn't even creak. "I... I don't know what to do now."

Emil stood slowly, keeping the camera steady, and circled around to try to get a better shot. "I didn't— I mean, I did all the stuff, but I never thought I'd actually _see_ anything. I thought ghosts were all fake! I don't, I know there's stuff to talk to ghosts out there, I don't have any of that stuff. …I'm going to try and talk to him anyway." He got a little closer to the tree - not _too_ close, but closer - and cleared his throat. "Hello!" 

The ghost shifted to turn his back to him again. 

"Um... hello? Can you hear me?" Emil circled around again, waving to try and get the ghost's attention. More quietly, to the camera, he added "Some ghosts aren't aware of what's going on around them, right? I'm _pretty_ sure that's—"

The ghost growled quietly and did something with his hair, then rolled off the branch and landed on his feet like some kind of dancer. He was definitely wearing jeggings - that did _not_ leave much to the imagination, _wow_ \- and a thin, V-neck shirt that he probably would've been freezing in if he were alive. His eyes were cold and blue, but somehow seemed to be burning. He sort of reminded Emil of the little engraved silver knife Sigrun _probably_ wasn't supposed to have and _definitely_ wasn't supposed to carry around, but did anyway - pretty and sharp and almost delicate-looking, until you remembered it could probably kill you easily.

He was also coming closer. 

Emil backed away a few steps and held the camera in front of him protectively, but the ghost didn't stop until he was only a few feet away. Then, he crossed his arms and hissed out, "Go away."

"Um." Emil replied.

The ghost glared at him like he was some kind of really uninteresting bug. "Go away," he repeated, then he glanced down at the camera and added, "and turn that off." 

_Oh, right, I'm filming this_ , Emil thought, looking down at the camera himself. _I should... say things_. "Hello, spirit!" he said, shifting the camera to one hand and offering the other. He was a ghost, but still, Emil wasn't raised in a barn. "Um, I am—"

The ghost flinched back from Emil's hand and grabbed him by the wrist. Actually _grabbed_ him - his hand was a little cold but definitely solid, and his grip was actually surprisingly strong. Emil went through all the stages of grief right there and made up a few new ones for good measure. " _Oh._ "

The boy - who wasn't actually a ghost, unless everything Emil had ever heard about ghosts was wrong - dropped his hand like it burned and stepped back, then hissed, " _What_ are you talking about?" 

"Oh no. I am _so_ sorry, I thought— I mean—" Emil fumbled to turn off his camera, nearly dropping it again. He could feel his face heating up. "I-I thought you were a ghost?" 

The boy was staring at him now, which was at least a step up from glaring. "What?"

"Well, uh, it's kind of a funny story, I guess..." Emil shifted on his feet, then frowned to himself. He was _freezing_ , and his clothes were wet, and he was _not_ in the mood to deal with that while explaining all this - the explanation would be uncomfortable enough. This boy probably wouldn't wait for him to go back home and change, but he could still fix the other issue. "It's too fucking cold to stand here and explain it, though. I know a coffee place nearby that should be open, we could go there?"

The boy blinked and tilted his head slightly, still staring at Emil. He still wasn't even wearing a jacket and he seemed fine, he probably thought Emil was a complete wimp... but Emil was too fucking cold to worry about that right this second. "I can pay," he added a little desperately when the boy didn't say anything. 

The boy stayed quiet for another long moment, then sort of shrugged. "Sure." 

Emil gave him the brightest smile he could at the moment, then paused. "Oh! I haven't even introduced myself, sorry. I'm Emil." He started to offer a handshake, then remembered how the boy had reacted last time and pretended he meant to brush off his jacket instead. 

The boy stared at him for a moment _again_ , then nodded slightly. "Lalli."

* * *

The good news was Lalli didn't look nearly as scary when he was lit by the coffee shop's bright florescent lights, sitting in the corner of the booth with his knees pulled up to his chest and watching the ridiculously sweet drink he'd order like it was going to run away. The bad news was that somehow he looked even hotter, and Emil was starting to realize that he'd sort of asked Lalli on a date. A date to a coffee shop at almost three in the morning to explain how he'd somehow convinced himself that Lalli was a fucking ghost. _Perfect_. 

"So, um..." Emil started, picking up one of the sugar cookies he'd bought and waving it around for emphasis, "Do you hang around in the park at night often?"

Lalli nodded once, watching Emil as he sipped his coffee. 

"Okay. Well, lately people who visited the park at night for whatever godforsaken reason have been posting on various ghost watching forums about seeing a 'pale figure' in the trees, which they assumed was a ghost of some kind. I'm guessing that was actually you, but no one got any pictures or detailed descriptions. As usual." 

"Mrr." Lalli set his drink down for a moment and narrowed his eyes. "That's... stupid." 

"Exactly!" Emil exclaimed, brandishing the cookie at Lalli excitedly. Lalli leaned back, then slowly reached out and took it; Emil let him. "It's completely ridiculous, some people will blame _anything_ on ghosts. That's actually where I come in: I take the time to research the area and look at whatever's happening, and of course I don't find any signs of _ghostly_ _activity_ or whatever nonsense, because ghosts aren't real. And then I film it so other people can see what's _really_ happening without going through all that themselves." 

"Mrr." Lalli replied again, looking unimpressed. 

Emil felt his face heat up. "And, um, this time. I was having a bad night, okay? And I didn't expect to find a _person_ in the _trees_ in the _middle of the night_." Lalli reached for another cookie without saying anything. Emil pushed the plate towards him. "Anyway, why _were_ you out in the park in the middle of the night, anyway?" 

"Dorm's too loud," Lalli replied before taking a bite of the cookie he'd taken. The noise he made then was halfway between a purr and a moan, and Emil felt his face heat up for completely different reasons. "It's easier to study in the park, and sleep when everyone in the dorm is out."

"Oh. Makes sense?" Emil reached for one of the cookies and took a bite himself. He guessed they were _decent_ sugar cookies; Sweet Dreams' were better, but he hadn't yet found a place that made better baked goods than Sweet Dreams. By the time he finished it, Lalli still hadn't said anything, so he added, "So, you go to the community college?" 

Lalli nodded once and kept eating. 

"...Okay. Cool." 

For a few minutes Emil just let Lalli eat in silence, trying not to stare until he noticed that Lalli had no issues staring himself. When he started considering taking a nap in the booth, though, he knew it was time to finish up and get back home. "So... a lot of people asked me to cover the Silent Woods Park 'ghost'." 

Lalli was already staring at him, but he sat up straighter and narrowed his eyes. 

Emil cleared his throat and looked down at the empty plate. "Nothing I took tonight is usable, and I doubt you want me to come in and film tomorrow night, so I guess I'll have to announce that you're not a ghost some other way. I'll... try to keep people from going out to check themselves." 

After a few long moments of silence, Emil glanced up; Lalli had looked away this time, frowning down at the table. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably and cleared his throat again. "Or, um..." 

"Mrr?" Lalli looked back up at Emil and tilted his head. Emil smiled softly at him, and for a moment, he thought he saw Lalli smile back. 

"Or... I could have a little fun with it. But I'd need your help."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here's the thing that made chapter 2 of SSGS take so long to write: a dumb ghost hunter/YouTuber AU. I have no regrets. I have also watched approximately 0 ghost hunting shows, so all ghost hunting content in this fic is completely made up.
> 
> Fun fact! This AU started existing because I got the mental image of Lalli in tight white jeans and a V-neck in my head, and I'm not yet proud of my drawing abilities, so instead I wrote a fic. Also, the idea of Emil mistaking Lalli for a ghost because he's so pale was funny.
> 
> Edit: Now there's some [art of "ghost" Lalli](https://worldsentwined.tumblr.com/post/615106475501682688/the-ghost-glared-at-him-like-he-was-some-kind-of) by Kiraly! Take a look, it's amazing.


	2. Chapter 2

_The video opened with Emil's face in the middle of the frame, dark trees in the background. There was a large discolored patch on his cheek and jaw, but the night vision camera didn't pick up enough details to be clear what it was. Emil grinned at the camera and started, "Hey, everyone, I'm here at Silent Woods City Park. It's four in the morning, and, um, waning gibbous—" he tilted the camera up to get a blurry shot of the sky, then back down to himself— "which is prime, uh, ghost time, obviously. I'm here because there have been reports of ghostly activity..."_

_As Emil kept talking, a pale shape slipped out of a tree in the background and landed lightly on the ground. It was out of focus and far enough away from the camera that no details were visible, but it was clearly humanoid, and its eyes almost seemed to glow._

_"...People have been saying, they've been seeing a ghost—a pale figure in the trees, at night, and I'm here to... look at that." Emil cleared his throat and glanced down for a moment, then back up at the camera. "I looked at the trees, and—" the pale shape shifted slightly on its feet, and then suddenly it was running towards Emil and the camera so fast it blurred— "I didn't see— **HOLY FUCKING SHIT** —" _

_For a second the video shook as if the camera had been suddenly thrown or knocked away, then it dissolved into static before the screen went_ _black._

* * *

Emil frowned down at the video on his phone and hummed disapprovingly. "I still think it ended too abruptly. It doesn't look natural." 

Lalli gave him an unimpressed look. "You wouldn't have had to end it abruptly if you didn't say my name in your recording." 

Emil felt himself blushing again and looked over at his shoulder to glare at Lalli, who still looked unimpressed. "You sc— startled me, okay?" 

"You suggested it," Lalli replied, staring back. 

"I didn't know you'd be so _quiet_! How'd you even do that?" 

Lalli made a noncommittal noise instead of answering, but Emil saw his lips curve up in a smile just for a moment. Then he looked back at the video quickly and reminded himself not to stare at Lalli's lips. 

"Huh, apparently it looked natural enough, someone's just left a comment worrying I'm dead." 

Lalli leaned in to look at the comment Emil was showing him. His arm brushed Emil's shoulder; Emil tried to pretend he didn't notice. "That's stupid," he said softly, "How would they be seeing the video if you were dead?" 

"Apparently, the ghost posted it as some kind of warning." Emil scoffed and leaned back in his chair, then froze when the movement pressed his shoulder against Lalli's chest. Lalli didn't move away. "I guess they think the ghost edited it too, and somehow got on my account to post it. Or, I don't know, they think I record directly on YouTube or something." 

"Mrr." Lalli patted his shoulder once and backed away, but stayed close enough. Emil could probably reach out and take his hand, if he wanted to - and he did - but Lalli probably wouldn't like that, so he just went back to scrolling through comments. After a moment Lalli sat down next to him - far enough away that there wasn't any more accidental touching, but close enough for Emil to show him particularly stupid comments. It was kind of nice. Quiet with Reynir was always a little bit awkward, and Emil was pretty sure quiet and Sigrun couldn't exist in the same room, but quiet with Lalli almost felt natural; Emil felt like he could spend the whole morning sitting next to Lalli, both of them doing their own thing. 

Then Lalli looked at the clock, growled softly, and stood up to go, and Emil remembered that once he left Emil might never see him again. "Wait!" His voice squeaked humiliatingly, but if Lalli noticed he didn't react. Instead, he just turned to look at Emil and tilted his head, and now Emil had to come up with a reason. "Um... that was fun. Aside from the, uh, misunderstanding at the beginning." 

Lalli just nodded once and kept _watching_ him. Emil tried not to squirm in his seat. "I film at night a lot, so... um, maybe, if I'm in the area and you're... studying, we could meet up and do this again? Without all the, uh, ghost stuff." 

For a long moment, Lalli just kept staring at him until Emil started to worry he was trying to find a polite way to say no - or worse, he was too disgusted by the offer to reply - then his mouth twitched up for a split second and he nodded again. "Sure." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here's a secret: I already had part of this chapter written when I published chapter one. That's how I was able to get this chapter up so fast, that and the fact that it's really more of a little epilogue :) 
> 
> I _will_ be writing more in this AU (if nothing else, I mentioned Reynir in this fic, so I am now obligated to write something where Reynir shows up), but I don't want to completely abandon SSGS, so it might be a little while unfortunately. I do have Plans, though!


End file.
